Joe Biden

More than 30 years ago, Congress identified what it said was a grave threat to the American promise of equal justice for all: Federal judges were giving wildly different punishments to defendants who had committed the same crimes. The worries were many. Some lawmakers feared lenient judges were giving criminals too little time in prison. Others suspected African-American defendants were being unfairly sentenced to steeper prison terms than white defendants. In 1984, Congress created the U.S. Sentencing Commission with remarkable bipartisan support.

U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham is expected to speak at next week’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. The Democratic National Convention Committee released a partial list of scheduled speakers and that list included Lujan Grisham, who represents the Albuquerque area in New Mexico. She is the only New Mexican included on the list. NM Political Report reached out to Lujan Grisham’s office and will add a response when we receive one. Every Democratic member of the congressional delegation endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.

While former state Rep. Sandra Jeff avoided ballot disqualification after a recent scuffle with the Secretary of State, several questions remain about possible discrepancies in previous campaign reports. The biggest question is the sudden disappearance of more than $27,000 in debt from her failed 2014 campaign for reelection to the state House of Representatives. In July 2014, Jeff reported a loan contribution of $26,720.82 from Gallagher & Kennedy, a law firm with offices in Santa Fe and Phoenix. A note next to the contribution reads, “Campaign Debt for legal fees incurred.”

Jeff continued to report this debt, plus an extra $1,200 that she loaned to herself, for the next six campaign reporting periods, marking a period of nearly two years. But on March 15 of this year, Jeff amended seven old campaign reports from the 2014 election cycle.

Vice President Joe Biden and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are among the high profile Democrats scheduled to appear in Santa Fe this weekend for a Democratic conference. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Issues Conference will take place this weekend with a number of high profile Democrats. Related: Michelle Obama to give commencement address at Santa Fe Indian School

The Santa Fe location is likely thanks to Ben Ray Luján. The congressman who represents the state capital is the chair of the DCCC. Luján is the first Hispanic chair of the Democratic group dedicated to elected Democrats to Congress. “I look forward to welcoming Leader Pelosi, Vice President Biden, and my colleagues to New Mexico for this opportunity to show off the state and all the great things New Mexico has to offer,” Luján said in a statement.

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson appeared on a conservative cable TV show and said that the leading Republican presidential candidate’s remarks about immigrants and Mexicans won’t help in the general election. “He is addicted to attention,” Richardson said of businessman Donald Trump. Richardson said Trump was getting this attention from “outrageous positions like repealing the 14th amendment.” Richardson made the comments while appearing on the Steve Malberg Show on Newsmax TV, a politically conservative cable TV network. In particular, Richardson objected to Trump’s use of the term “anchor babies.”

OPINION & ANALYSIS

On January 30th, during Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, New Mexicans –along with the entire country– mourned with the parents of the two teenage girls from Long Island who were brutally murdered in the fall of 2016. It was a tough thing to watch, considering the underlying purpose for their presence at the […]

New Mexico, like most states, struggles to create an education system that can compete nationally and internationally and prepare our children to succeed in a global economy. My thirty years as an educator have taught me, just as importantly, the best of our schools can transform our children with positive experiences that lead to emotional […]

Next month, hundreds of corporate representatives will sit down at their computers, log into something called Energynet, and bid, eBay style, for more than 300,000 acres of federal land spread across five Western states. They will pay as little as $2 per acre for control of parcels in southeastern Utah’s canyon country, Wyoming sage grouse […]

Each year, the New Mexico Legislature debates the issues that influence whether children receive the tools they need to make better lives for themselves, that decide our state’s economic future, and that create the moral fabric of our lives here together in our beautiful state. Bills are not simply jumbles of text on paper that […]

Capital outlay funding is a controversial and difficult process. The demand for state money far exceeds the funds available; for the 2018 legislative session, state and local governments have requested over $2 billion for capital outlay funded by general obligation and severance tax bonds. The Department of Finance and Administration (DFA), the General Services Department […]

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An Alamogordo resident filed an open records lawsuit against the New Mexico Office of the Attorney General Friday, alleging the office illegally redacted portions of legal invoices related to a U.S. Supreme Court case.

Some Democratic elected officials from New Mexico and the party’s state chair called for a member of their party to step down as a Doña Ana County Commissioner on Thursday after allegations of sexual misconduct.